The Research: In a series of studies, Rebecca Walker Reczek and Daniel Zane at Fisher College of Business and Julie Irwin at McCombs School of Business asked people what information they wanted when purchasing jeans. The subjects were told that because of time limits, they could get details on only two of the following attributes: price, style, wash, and child labor practices. The subjects who didn’t select labor practices were then asked their opinions of consumers who did. They rated the do-gooders low on positive traits (such as attractive and stylish) and high on negative traits (such as odd and boring).
A version of this article appeared in the April 2016 issue (pp.32–33) of Harvard Business Review.